Online printing service

April 29, 2005 1:12 PM

What are your recommendations for an online printing service? I want to be able to send or upload a PDF file and have the service print paper copies, binding them, etc., as needed.

I tried Mimeo, which did a nice job for a reasonable price, but they want to charge me $50 per month to keep my documents on file. Otherwise, to use its service, I need to upload the document and redo all the settings.

posted by yclipse to computers & internet (8 comments total)

I've never used Lulu.com, but they look like they might do what you want. They seem to be mostly aimed at the self-book-publishing market (they'll help you get your book into Amazon, etc.) but they also handle just plain print-on-demand.
posted by hattifattener at 1:36 PM on April 29, 2005

if I may, I'm looking to print one or two poster-size prints of artwork I have done in photoshop...any recommendations along those lines?
posted by plexiwatt at 1:40 PM on April 29, 2005

Kinko's (prior to being bought by FedEx) used to have a service that would fit your needs, with free document storage even, but it might be gone or it may have been bastardized by now into something too expensive to use. I do know that you can still upload files to the website, but it's not the same service to which I'm referring. Contact one fo their sales folks to see if they still have it.

plexiwatt - they also do oversize work. give them a jingle.
posted by FlamingBore at 1:50 PM on April 29, 2005

Try any local reprographics place (the good ones, that do architects' renderings and the like) if it's in your budget.

I've used a few repro firms near my office. We email over reports or other documents, and over the phone they'll discuss paper quality, binding types, covers etc. They do an excellent job.
posted by dublinemma at 2:04 PM on April 29, 2005

For the large poster size printing try these guys.
http://pictopia.com/pub/ourservice.html
I read about them on cool tools.
posted by snowjoe at 2:06 PM on April 29, 2005

Where I work we just started using Office Max for this and they are better, faster, and cheaper (no way! WAY!).
The one here (Seattle area) is a Regional Printing Center, so it may mean that because we are close, they are faster for us.
We send them stuff through their ftp site and they print, drill (holes for binders), make cover sheets for the binders, make tabs with labels for the binders, and stick the docs in the binders (we're talking 10,000+ pages) and deliver on time (early even!) with a smile.
YMMV, but I can't say enough good things about them.
posted by dbmcd at 3:06 PM on April 29, 2005

PsPrint is what I use.
posted by JohnR at 3:49 PM on April 29, 2005

I second PSPrint. They've been great, output looks good, and pricing is great. I don't believe they store your files long term, though.
posted by yaquina27 at 9:08 PM on April 29, 2005